You are alive, but just how alive? We know that species live under our beds or in our backyards. But how many living organisms are on a square centimeter of your skin? What do they do, and how they differ from those of your neighbor? Very little is known about the life that breathes all over us. Each person’s microbial jungle is so rich, colorful, and dynamic that in all likelihood your body hosts species that no scientist has ever studied. Your navel may well be one of the last biological frontiers. It is time then, to explore…

As we wash even more vigorously, we might recall that it was on this date in 1917 that showman Florenz Ziegfeld staged the first Ziegfeld Follies on the roof of a New York theater. (N.B., the date is given by some sources as July 7.) Ziegfeld’s extravaganzas were produced annually through 1931; they featured production numbers choreographed to the works of composers that included Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern, and performances by a panoply of stars including Nora Bayes, Fanny Brice, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Ann Pennington, Billie Burke, and Anna Held. The shows moved indoors after the premiere; in 1927, Ziegfeld opened the eponymously-named Ziegfeld Theater on Broadway (actually, on Sixth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets). Before Ziegfeld’s death in 1932, he managed the migration of the Follies to motion pictures and radio.